Three successive annual meetings will be held that will draw together the major practitioners in the field of genome mapping and sequencing. Major areas for discussion will be new methodologies that will accelerate the pace of genome mapping and DNA sequencing, progress reports on large mapping and sequencing and restriction mapping. There will also be considerable emphasis on those aspects of computation, such as database management, informatics and data interpretation that are especially relevant to this field. We anticipate that the meetings will provide unique opportunities for the exchange of current ideas and experience in this rapidly emerging and exciting field. The meetings will be international ones and will each involve 250 to 300 participants.